Child maintenance: Third of parents failing to pay ex-partner in Shropshire

Newly released figures from the Department for Work and Pensions show that around 550 parents were due to pay support through the Child Maintenance Service in Shropshire between April and June 2018, but 34.2 per cent of them had their payments in arrears.

In the Telford & Wrekin Council area 460 parents were due to pay support, with 32.9 per cent of them had their payments in arrears.

In Powys the figure was even higher with payments in arrears for 37.7 per cent of 220 parents.

The proportion of parents with payments in arrears for the first quarter of the year is down in all areas.

Shropshire is down from 39.8 per cent, Telford & Wrekin down from 35 per cent, and in Powys it is down from 40.5 per cent.

The charity for single-parent families Gingerbread said the rate of noncompliance in Britain, about 38 per cent of the total, is "worryingly high".

This payment service, called Collect & Pay, is part of the Child Maintenance Service (CMS), which was set up in 2012 to replace the Child Support Agency.

The CMS can take money from a parent's earnings or their bank account if they try to avoid payments, or take a parent to court.

At the start of this year, the best performance was in the Orkney Islands, in Scotland, where only 22.7 per cent of parents failed to pay. The poorest record was in Tandridge, the South East, where 51.7 per cent of parents did not meet their obligations to their children.

The Child Maintenance Service can also calculate the amount of child support to be paid and parents can make the arrangements themselves without the direct control of the Government – a mechanism called Direct Pay.

In Shropshire, 1,180 parents made Direct Pay arrangements from April to June 2018. In Telford & Wrekin it was 960, and in Powys 460.

At the end of June 2018, three quarters of paying parents in the CMS in Britain were using Direct Pay and a quarter the Collect & Pay Service.

Sumi Rabindrakumar, research officer at Gingerbread, said: "These figures show that the government still needs to get to grips with unpaid child maintenance. Time and time again, parents come to Gingerbread frustrated by CMS inaction.

"This is not just about introducing more powers. The CMS must deal with cases more promptly and make better use of existing powers. With over £200 million in unpaid maintenance, the Government risks repeating the same mistakes as the old Child Support Agency. Without reform, too many children will continue to go without the support they deserve."